Author name: Enthusiast

You often see cans of solvent finishes, including lacquer, and alkyd and polyurethane varnish, with instructions not to thin them. Manufacturers include these instructions in order to comply with VOC laws in some areas of the country, such as California. Adding thinner could take the finish out of compliance with the local or state laws, and manufacturers might be breaking the law if they advocated thinning. But they then sell […]

The post You Can Add All the Thinner You Want appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In two weeks I’m moving to a new workshop (ground-floor storefront, yay!). But last night as I was trying to get to sleep I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to prop the lid of my tool chest open against a wall. Most old tool chests that I have seen don’t have any mechanism to keep the lid open, though these mechanisms do exist. Most of the time, […]

The post A Quick Hold-open Lid Stay for a Tool Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It’s wonderful that so many things within woodworking can be accomplished with such simple principles and relative ease of application. This humble wedging action is a perfect example. Clamping, securing tenons or the angle of a dovetail all have a simple taper at their heart. I’m at the stage of my workbench project where I need to edge glue some boards to make the aprons. It seemed an ideal time […]

The post Joiner’s Dogs, Simple Clamping appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Though I’ve been building campaign furniture pieces for five years, my focus has been on British pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are definitely other traditions in campaign furniture. They just don’t appeal as much to me as a woodworker. North American campaign furniture – mostly from our Revolution and Civil wars – is fairly unsophisticated compared to the British forms. Rarely was it made to identifiable patterns. […]

The post Different Campaign Furniture (Different Campaign) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The paint-and-varnish removers commonly available in stores are gradually shifting from those available in metal cans to those available in plastic containers. The ones in plastic aren’t as strong or fast acting as those in cans, which are methylene chloride and various lacquer-thinner solvents. Just the packaging, plastic vs. metal, tells you this. The vast majority of strippers sold in plastic containers are based on the solvent n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) […]

The post Remove Residue NMP From The Wood appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You can create beautiful finishes without a lot of equipment, but there are a few things you should always have on hand. Here are a few things you should keep around for finishing that are helpful for other purposes too. Lint-free Rags Rags are great to have around the shop for many reasons, but they’re especially usefulfor finishing. Don’t use old socks or t-shirts; they’ll leave lint behind. Get some lint-free […]

The post 5 Must-Have Wood Finishing Supplies appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.